Dark on their journey lour’d the gloomy day,
Wild were the hills, and doubtful grew the way;
More dark, more gloomy, and more doubtful, show’d
The mansion, which received them from the road.
--THE TRAVELLERS, A ROMANCE.
Angus M’Aulay was charged with a message which he seemed to find some
difficulty in communicating; for it was not till after he had framed his
speech several different ways, and blundered them all, that he succeeded
in letting Sir Duncan Campbell know, that the cavalier who was to
accompany him was waiting in readiness, and that all was prepared for
his return to Inverary. Sir Duncan Campbell rose up very indignantly;
the affront which this message implied immediately driving out of his
recollection the sensibility which had been awakened by the music.
“I little expected this,” he said, looking indignantly at Angus M’Aulay.
“I little thought that there was a Chief in the West Highlands, who, at
the pleasure of a Saxon, would have bid the Knight of Ardenvohr leave
his castle, when the sun was declining from the meridian, and ere the
second cup had been filled. But farewell, sir, the food of a churl does
not satisfy the appetite; when I next revisit Darnlinvarach, it shall be
with a naked sword in one hand, and a firebrand in the other.”
“And if you so come,” said Angus, “I pledge myself to meet you fairly,
though you brought five hundred Campbells at your back, and to afford
you and them such entertainment, that you shall not again complain of
the hospitality of Darnlinvarach.”
“Threatened men,” said Sir Duncan, “live long. Your turn for
gasconading, Laird of M’Aulay, is too well known, that men of honour
should regard your vaunts. To you, my lord, and to Allan, who have
supplied the place of my churlish host, I leave my thanks.--And to you,
pretty mistress,” he said, addressing Annot Lyle, “this little token,
for having opened a fountain which hath been dry for many a year.”
So saying, he left the apartment, and commanded his attendants to be
summoned. Angus M’Aulay, equally embarrassed and incensed at the
charge of inhospitality, which was the greatest possible affront to a
Highlander, did not follow Sir Duncan to the court-yard, where, mounting
his palfrey, which was in readiness, followed by six mounted attendants,
and accompanied by the noble Captain Dalgetty, who had also awaited him,
holding Gustavus ready for action, though he did not draw his girths and
mount till Sir Duncan appeared, the whole cavalcade left the castle.
The journey was long and toilsome, but without any of the extreme
privations which the Laird of M’Aulay had prophesied. In truth, Sir
Duncan was very cautious to avoid those nearer and more secret paths,
by means of which the county of Argyle was accessible from the eastward;
for his relation and chief, the Marquis, was used to boast, that he
would not for a hundred thousand crowns any mortal should know the
passes by which an armed force could penetrate into his country.
Sir Duncan Campbell, therefore, rather shunned the Highlands, and
falling into the Low-country, made for the nearest seaport in the
vicinity, where he had several half-decked galleys, or birlings, as
they were called, at his command. In one of these they embarked, with
Gustavus in company, who was so seasoned to adventure, that land and sea
seemed as indifferent to him as to his master.
The wind being favourable, they pursued their way rapidly with sails and
oars; and early the next morning it was announced to Captain Dalgetty,
then in a small cabin beneath the hall-deck, that the galley was under
the walls of Sir Duncan Campbell’s castle.
Ardenvohr, accordingly, rose high above him, when he came upon the deck
of the galley. It was a gloomy square tower, of considerable size and
great height, situated upon a headland projecting into the salt-water
lake, or arm of the sea, which they had entered on the preceding
evening. A wall, with flanking towers at each angle, surrounded the
castle to landward; but, towards the lake, it was built so near the
brink of the precipice as only to leave room for a battery of seven
guns, designed to protect the fortress from any insult from that side,
although situated too high to be of any effectual use according to the
modern system of warfare.
The eastern sun, rising behind the old tower, flung its shadow far on
the lake, darkening the deck of the galley, on which Captain Dalgetty
now walked, waiting with some impatience the signal to land. Sir Duncan
Campbell, as he was informed by his attendants, was already within the
walls of the castle; but no one encouraged the Captain’s proposal of
following him ashore, until, as they stated, they should receive the
direct permission or order of the Knight of Ardenvohr.
In a short time afterwards the mandate arrived, while a boat, with a
piper in the bow, bearing the Knight of Ardenvohr’s crest in silver upon
his left arm, and playing with all his might the family march, entitled
“The Campbells are coming,” approached to conduct the envoy of Montrose
to the castle of Ardenvohr. The distance between the galley and the
beach was so short as scarce to require the assistance of the eight
sturdy rowers, in bonnets, short coats, and trews, whose efforts sent
the boat to the little creek in which they usually landed, before one
could have conceived that it had left the side of the birling. Two of
the boatmen, in spite of Dalgetty’s resistance, horsed the Captain on
the back of a third Highlander, and, wading through the surf with him,
landed him high and dry upon the beach beneath the castle rock. In
the face of this rock there appeared something like the entrance of a
low-browed cavern, towards which the assistants were preparing to hurry
our friend Dalgetty, when, shaking himself loose from them with some
difficulty, he insisted upon seeing Gustavus safely landed before he
proceeded one step farther. The Highlanders could not comprehend what he
meant, until one who had picked up a little English, or rather Lowland
Scotch, exclaimed, “Houts! it’s a’ about her horse, ta useless baste.”
Farther remonstrance on the part of Captain Dalgetty was interrupted
by the appearance of Sir Duncan Campbell himself, from the mouth of
the cavern which we have described, for the purpose of inviting Captain
Dalgetty to accept of the hospitality of Ardenvohr, pledging his honour,
at the same time, that Gustavus should be treated as became the hero
from whom he derived his name, not to mention the important person
to whom he now belonged. Notwithstanding this satisfactory guarantee,
Captain Dalgetty would still have hesitated, such was his anxiety to
witness the fate of his companion Gustavus, had not two Highlanders
seized him by the arms, two more pushed him on behind, while a fifth
exclaimed, “Hout awa wi’ the daft Sassenach! does she no hear the Laird
bidding her up to her ain castle, wi’ her special voice, and isna that
very mickle honour for the like o’ her?”
Thus impelled, Captain Dalgetty could only for a short space keep a
reverted eye towards the galley in which he had left the partner of his
military toils. In a few minutes afterwards he found himself involved in
the total darkness of a staircase, which, entering from the low-browed
cavern we have mentioned, winded upwards through the entrails of the
living rock.
“The cursed Highland salvages!” muttered the Captain, half aloud; “what
is to become of me, if Gustavus, the namesake of the invincible Lion of
the Protestant League, should be lamed among their untenty hands!”
“Have no fear of that,” said the voice of Sir Duncan, who was nearer to
him than he imagined; “my men are accustomed to handle horses, both in
embarking and dressing them, and you will soon see Gustavus as safe as
when you last dismounted from his back.”
Captain Dalgetty knew the world too well to offer any farther
remonstrance, whatever uneasiness he might suppress within his own
bosom. A step or two higher up the stair showed light and a door, and
an iron-grated wicket led him out upon a gallery cut in the open face
of the rock, extending a space of about six or eight yards, until he
reached a second door, where the path re-entered the rock, and which was
also defended by an iron portcullis. “An admirable traverse,” observed
the Captain; “and if commanded by a field-piece, or even a few muskets,
quite sufficient to ensure the place against a storming party.”
Sir Duncan Campbell made no answer at the time; but, the moment
afterwards, when they had entered the second cavern, he struck with the
stick which he had in his hand, first on the one side, and then on the
other of the wicket, and the sullen ringing sound which replied to the
blows, made Captain Dalgetty sensible that there was a gun placed on
each side, for the purpose of raking the gallery through which they had
passed, although the embrasures, through which they might be fired on
occasion, were masked on the outside with sods and loose stones. Having
ascended the second staircase, they found themselves again on an open
platform and gallery, exposed to a fire both of musketry and wall-guns,
if, being come with hostile intent, they had ventured farther. A third
flight of steps, cut in the rock like the former, but not caverned over,
led them finally into the battery at the foot of the tower. This last
stair also was narrow and steep, and, not to mention the fire which
might be directed on it from above, one or two resolute men, with pikes
and battle-axes, could have made the pass good against hundreds; for the
staircase would not admit two persons abreast, and was not secured by
any sort of balustrade, or railing, from the sheer and abrupt precipice,
on the foot of which the tide now rolled with a voice of thunder. So
that, under the jealous precautions used to secure this ancient Celtic
fortress, a person of weak nerves, and a brain liable to become dizzy,
might have found it something difficult to have achieved the entrance to
the castle, even supposing no resistance had been offered.
Captain Dalgetty, too old a soldier to feel such tremors, had no sooner
arrived in the court-yard, than he protested to God, the defences of Sir
Duncan’s castle reminded him more of the notable fortress of Spandau,
situated in the March of Brandenburg, than of any place whilk it had
been his fortune to defend in the course of his travels. Nevertheless,
he criticised considerably the mode of placing the guns on the battery
we have noticed, observing, that “where cannon were perched, like to
scarts or sea-gulls on the top of a rock, he had ever observed that
they astonished more by their noise than they dismayed by the skaith or
damage which they occasioned.”
Sir Duncan, without replying, conducted the soldier into the tower; the
defences of which were a portcullis and ironclenched oaken door, the
thickness of the wall being the space between them. He had no sooner
arrived in a hall hung with tapestry, than the Captain prosecuted his
military criticism. It was indeed suspended by the sight of an excellent
breakfast, of which he partook with great avidity; but no sooner had he
secured this meal, than he made the tour of the apartment, examining the
ground around the Castle very carefully from each window in the room.
He then returned to his chair, and throwing himself back into it at his
length, stretched out one manly leg, and tapping his jack-boot with the
riding-rod which he carried in his hand, after the manner of a half-bred
man who affects ease in the society of his betters, he delivered his
unasked opinion as follows:--“This house of yours, now, Sir Duncan, is a
very pretty defensible sort of a tenement, and yet it is hardly such as
a cavaliero of honour would expect to maintain his credit by holding out
for many days. For, Sir Duncan, if it pleases you to notice, your house
is overcrowed, and slighted, or commanded, as we military men say, by
yonder round hillock to the landward, whereon an enemy might stell
such a battery of cannon as would make ye glad to beat a chamade within
forty-eight hours, unless it pleased the Lord extraordinarily to show
mercy.”
“There is no road,” replied Sir Duncan, somewhat shortly, “by which
cannon can be brought against Ardenvohr. The swamps and morasses around
my house would scarce carry your horse and yourself, excepting by such
paths as could be rendered impassable within a few hours.”
“Sir Duncan,” said the Captain, “it is your pleasure to suppose so; and
yet we martial men say, that where there is a sea-coast there is always
a naked side, seeing that cannon and munition, where they cannot be
transported by land, may be right easily brought by sea near to the
place where they are to be put in action. Neither is a castle, however
secure in its situation, to be accounted altogether invincible, or, as
they say, impregnable; for I protest t’ye, Sir Duncan, that I have known
twenty-five men, by the mere surprise and audacity of the attack, win,
at point of pike, as strong a hold as this of Ardenvohr, and put to the
sword, captivate, or hold to the ransom, the defenders, being ten times
their own number.”
Notwithstanding Sir Duncan Campbell’s knowledge of the world, and his
power of concealing his internal emotion, he appeared piqued and hurt
at these reflections, which the Captain made with the most unconscious
gravity, having merely selected the subject of conversation as one upon
which he thought himself capable of shining, and, as they say, of laying
down the law, without exactly recollecting that the topic might not be
equally agreeable to his landlord.
“To cut this matter short,” said Sir Duncan, with an expression of voice
and countenance somewhat agitated, “it is unnecessary for you to
tell me, Captain Dalgetty, that a castle may be stormed if it is not
valorously defended, or surprised if it is not heedfully watched.
I trust this poor house of mine will not be found in any of these
predicaments, should even Captain Dalgetty himself choose to beleaguer
it.”
“For all that, Sir Duncan,” answered the persevering commander, “I would
premonish you, as a friend, to trace out a sconce upon that round
hill, with a good graffe, or ditch, whilk may be easily accomplished by
compelling the labour of the boors in the vicinity; it being the custom
of the valorous Gustavus Adolphus to fight as much by the spade and
shovel, as by sword, pike, and musket. Also, I would advise you to
fortify the said sconce, not only by a foussie, or graffe, but also by
certain stackets, or palisades.”--(Here Sir Duncan, becoming impatient,
left the apartment, the Captain following him to the door, and raising
his voice as he retreated, until he was fairly out of hearing.)--“The
whilk stackets, or palisades, should be artificially framed with
re-entering angles and loop-holes, or crenelles, for musketry, whereof
it shall arise that the foeman--The Highland brute! the old Highland
brute! They are as proud as peacocks, and as obstinate as tups--and here
he has missed an opportunity of making his house as pretty an irregular
fortification as an invading army ever broke their teeth upon.--But I
see,” he continued, looking own from the window upon the bottom of the
precipice, “they have got Gustavus safe ashore--Proper fellow! I would
know that toss of his head among a whole squadron. I must go to see what
they are to make of him.”
He had no sooner reached, however, the court to the seaward, and put
himself in the act of descending the staircase, than two Highland
sentinels, advancing their Lochaber axes, gave him to understand that
this was a service of danger.
“Diavolo!” said the soldier, “and I have got no pass-word. I could not
speak a syllable of their salvage gibberish, an it were to save me from
the provost-marshal.”
“I will be your surety, Captain Dalgetty,” said Sir Duncan, who had
again approached him without his observing from whence; “and we will go
together, and see how your favourite charger is accommodated.”
He conducted him accordingly down the staircase to the beach, and from
thence by a short turn behind a large rock, which concealed the stables
and other offices belonging to the castle, Captain Dalgetty became
sensible, at the same time, that the side of the castle to the land was
rendered totally inaccessible by a ravine, partly natural and partly
scarped with great care and labour, so as to be only passed by a
drawbridge. Still, however, the Captain insisted, not withstanding the
triumphant air with which Sir Duncan pointed out his defences, that a
sconce should be erected on Drumsnab, the round eminence to the east of
the castle, in respect the house might be annoyed from thence by burning
bullets full of fire, shot out of cannon, according to the curious
invention of Stephen Bathian, King of Poland, whereby that prince
utterly ruined the great Muscovite city of Moscow. This invention,
Captain Dalgetty owned, he had not yet witnessed, but observed, “that
it would give him particular delectation to witness the same put to
the proof against Ardenvohr, or any other castle of similar strength;”
observing, “that so curious an experiment could not but afford the
greatest delight to all admirers of the military art.”
Sir Duncan Campbell diverted this conversation by carrying the soldier
into his stables, and suffering him to arrange Gustavus according to
his own will and pleasure. After this duty had been carefully performed,
Captain Dalgetty proposed to return to the castle, observing, it was his
intention to spend the time betwixt this and dinner, which, he presumed,
would come upon the parade about noon, in burnishing his armour, which
having sustained some injury from the sea-air, might, he was afraid,
seem discreditable in the eyes of M’Callum More. Yet, while they were
returning to the castle, he failed not to warn Sir Duncan Campbell
against the great injury he might sustain by any sudden onfall of an
enemy, whereby his horses, cattle, and granaries, might be cut off and
consumed, to his great prejudice; wherefore he again strongly conjured
him to construct a sconce upon the round hill called Drumsnab, and
offered his own friendly services in lining out the same. To this
disinterested advice Sir Duncan only replied by ushering his guest to
his apartment, and informing him that the tolling of the castle bell
would make him aware when dinner was ready.